origin-story
Explanation
The comic shows a group of prehistoric cave people confronting a storyteller. They say: "Pag! Listen. We know your stories are lies. But are good stories. You admit am liar, still tell stories, we give you fish." The storyteller responds: "Not lots fish. Some fish." The caption below reads: "The origin of theater."
The joke imagines the very first moment in human history when storytelling became a profession. The cave people have figured out that Pag's stories are fictional -- they are lies -- but they enjoy them enough to offer compensation (fish) in exchange. The humor lies in several layers: first, the negotiation itself is funny, as Pag haggles them down from "lots of fish" to "some fish," establishing the long tradition of artists being underpaid. Second, the comic presents the birth of theater as essentially a social contract where everyone agrees to pretend that fiction is not lying, as long as it is entertaining. The caveman's blunt framing -- "We know you are a liar, but we like it" -- strips away all the highfalutin language we use about art and performance to reveal the fundamental transaction underneath: we pay people to lie to us entertainingly. This pairs nicely with the previous day's comic about artists and self-expression, continuing the theme of art's relationship with honesty.